336 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



I referred several times above to tlie fact that the claus have certain 

 rights ill whicli the others do not share. These are mainly the use of 

 certain crests and of semi -religious performances. All of these are 

 acquired by marriage, as described above. In the village communities 

 of the southern tribes we find no trace of a crest, while among the 

 Kwakiutl it is not strictly hereditary, but descends through marriage 

 in the female line, in a similar way as the crest of the northern tribes 

 descends. The legends of the acquisition of the crest are also similar 

 to the northern legends on the same subject, and I conclude, therefore, 

 that the present stage has developed through contact of these two cul- 

 tural areas. I do not mean to say that tlie ideas have been bodily bor- 

 rowed by the Kwakiutl, Init that their manifestation in the social 

 organization of the tribe is largely due to suggestion on the part of the 

 northern tribes. The American idea of the acquisition of the manitou 

 was evidently also fundamental among tlie Kwakiutl, as all their tales 

 refer to it, and, as we shall see later on, the whole winter ceremonial is 

 based on it. But it has assumed a peculiar form in so far as the manitou 

 was acquired by a mythical ancestor and is now handed down from gen- 

 eration to generation, and the connection has in many cases become so 

 slight that the tutelary genius of the clan lias degenerated into a crest. 

 This degeneration, together with the descent through marriage, I take 

 to be due to the iniluence of the northern totemism. 



I give a few stories illustrating the acquisition of the crest through 

 the ancestor, which will bring out the close analogy with the acquisi- 

 tion of the manitou, and also show the manner in which the crest is 

 used for adorning persons and utensils. 



The legend of the O'manits'enox, which I quoted above (Appendix, 

 p. 005), goes on to tell how G-e'xdEn fell in with a number of killer whales, 

 which had assumed the shape of men, and were mending their canoes. 

 Their chief gave him the quartz-pointed whaling harpoon, his names, 

 and the right to use the painting of the killer whale on his house front. 



Another good example is the following tradition of the clan La'xse of 

 the Q'd'moyue or Kue/xa. I give here a translation : 



The first Kue'xa lived at Tsa/Xoyo. Their chief, Yc'iqoLalasame, 

 we .t bear hunting up the river of LiXsT'wr' until he came to Sa/x-sox*. 

 After he had been away four days, he saw the Ho'Xhoq (a fabulous 

 bird, supposed to be similar to the crane) and heard its cry. It was 

 larger than a man. Then Ye'iiioLalasamc hid. The Ho'Xhoq tried to 

 find him, and finally discovered the place where the chief was in hiding 

 at one side of a cedar tree. It tried to peck him with its beak, but 

 missed him. Ye/iqoLalasamc merely jumped to the other side of the 

 tree, and the Hd'Xhoq could not kill him. lie came home at night. 

 Then he carved the crane out of yellow cedar, and now it is the 

 carving of his clan (Plate 3). He invited all the tribes, and gave away 

 cedar-bark blankets, all kinds of skins, canoes, and slaves. Then he 

 placed tLc -...age of the Ho'Xhoii on top of a pole outside of his house. 



